Monday 30 June 2008

Portrait of a Neighbour

I drew this portrait of my artist friend and neighbour, Pam Griffin, while she worked at the life drawing class. Later I made a painting from the drawing showing two motifs that Pam often returns to in her paintings; the Pukeko and the Taniwha.
The Pukeko is a bird that is a common sight on the rural roads of New Zealand as it likes to live in ditches and scrub areas on the edges of farms and roads and the Taniwha is a Maori mythical monster that lives in water. Like me Pam is also a mural artist and her husband Trevor is a sculptor working mostly in stone and bone. It's kinda nice having artists living next door.
Very nice in fact..

Marley's Mural a Pictorial History part 2 and the no girls allowed policy and what happens when you institute one..


Events have transpired to slow down the momentum on Marley's Mural but I did manage to cut and prime the two 7 metre by 1200 canvases, the photo shows the priming in progress.

One of the events that transpired was the arrival at my house of my son Sam and two and a half year old grandson Mateo, we three have been very happy here in boytown for a month now and we are all fans of Thomas the tank engine and have extensive railway systems in the lounge and a strict no girls allowed policy.

Does this stop the girls? Absolutely not! In fact my female artist friends are popping in at every opportunity to drink my coffee and ignore me while they play with the two and a half year old chick magnet. I might as well go sit in the corner and read Kafka or something.
Across the road at Leah and Kevin's house lives Annabel, who, although only two and a half, has talked her mother into having Mateo come over there certain afternoons to babysit her. I am, frankly, amazed.
And that's not all - no sooner do we name our wee patch boytown and introduce a no girls allowed policy than I bump into a talented wise woman who cleverly allows me to sweep her off her feet...
Men! Lonely and feeling blue?
Have reverse psychology work for you!
Try our patented No girls allowed policy and see the results for yourself!!!


Thursday 26 June 2008

A Work in Progress

Here is a portrait of one of my artist friends who was a great help to me when I was living in Warkworth. I will start a blog of portraits one day. Portraits interest me greatly although no one seems to want to buy them. Perhaps they are out of fashion therefore I am out of fashion. Do I care? Nope. Simon's portrait has a frame and mount board and will be reassembled when I have done some more work on the celtic cross. Some pictures take years to complete even if, like Simon's portrait, the initial drawing was completed in less than an hour. Good things take time, kiddies, master the art of patience while you are waiting eh?

Friday 20 June 2008

Barbi in the studio dancing to Amy Winehouse

I have been a bit crook so no posting for a few weeks but Barbi came to visit and brought with her sunshine and happiness. There are now two mural commissions on my books, as they say and today, Sunday, I will be working on the designs for both of them and will soon have posts on Marley's Mural epicode 2 and the Rocket Park Mural episode 1. The Rocket Park is a kid's playground and I will be paintint a mural or two there in Winter. No worries, doesn't snow here but in a Southerly one can smell the Antarctic and the Great Southern Ocean on the winds that come whipping through the Karangahake Gorge and keep little old Waihi cool, man, really cool.